


Carmilla Week 2018

by BatWingsandBlackCats



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Carmilla Week, F/F, Fluff, Memories, Mild Angst, Post S3, Punk!Carmilla, blast from the past
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-05 08:08:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16364093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BatWingsandBlackCats/pseuds/BatWingsandBlackCats
Summary: My pieces for the 2018 Carmilla Week!





	1. Blast From the Past - mohawk musings

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still here, I swear! I can't believe I actually got this first chapter written, I've had horrid writer's block for the entire year, hence the very scarce fanfic coming from me. But I swear I'm still here, and all the other fics on this account will be updated eventually when my brain decides to function properly again. 
> 
> Apologies for any typos, I was very tired when I wrote this, lol. 
> 
> You guys are wonderfull, and I hope you enjoy these little one shot!

“What?” Carmilla asked, glancing at Laura curiously.

“I guess I just expected…more,” Laura said with a slight shrug. 

"Do I strike you as a pack rat?” Carmilla asked with a smirk.

“No, but you _are_ sentimental,” Laura grinned, and leaned forward to take one of the boxes from the back of the little rental car as Carmilla rolled her eyes, and followed Carmilla up the stairs to their tiny, creeky, yet wonderful little apartment.

The two of them hadn’t really known what to do when they’d crawled out of the pit. 

Neither of them could remember much of what happened between leaving the pit and arriving at Laura’s childhood home. It was all a blur of too bright colors and shouting and grasping hands fading in and out. They vaguely remembered half conversations, speaking to the Austrian police and then Sherman when they reunited outside of the campus. 

They tried to fill in the blanks for each other, but made little progress. They figured bits and pieces would surface eventually. 

The weeks that followed were spent holed up in Laura and Sherman’s house, the first few days finding them tucked into Laura’s bed, sleeping on and off, only leaving the room to eat and shower. They were loathed to let go of each other for a long time, but eventually things began to even out. Carmilla’s heart stopped lurching into her throat when Laura left her sight, and Laura stopped waking up panicked when she didn’t feel Carmilla’s soft weight beside her, if Carmilla had gotten up to use the bathroom or get something to drink at night. 

Sherman perpetually hovered, more so than usual in the beginning, but even he fell back into a routine of only moderate hovering, though the one major difference was that he wasn’t just hovering around Laura, but Carmilla too. As irritating as it was sometimes, it made something in Laura’s chest warm. Sherman was coming around to her. Slowly but surely. He seemed to understand what Carmilla meant to Laura, finally. 

Neither of them ever told Sherman that Laura had died, however briefly. 

That would have broken him. 

Several months passed, and two of healed and regained their strength, fell back into a normal routine, and they found themselves growing out of Laura’s old bedroom very quickly all of a sudden. 

Being back home was exactly what Laura, and by extension Carmilla, had needed, somewhere safe that felt like home with someone else there that reminded them that things were as they should be, that there were no more gods chasing them, no more impending catastrophes. For a long time they didn’t know what to do with themselves, but it all came back. 

Laura found a job at a newspaper, and Carmilla found a job at a bookstore, and they delved into Carmilla’s centuries old trust fund, and they found themselves an apartment. 

It was an old apartment, the floors wide planked and creeky and they were pretty sure the small stained glass windows that were situated near the ceiling in some rooms still had the leaded glass intact, but it had been fixed up by the owner and it was what Laura had dreamed about that night in the library when she’d rambled idly about finding a little apartment in Paris. 

(They had plans to go to Paris as soon as they finished moving in, and Carmilla had plans to spend a chunk of her money on a little apartment for them there. She hadn’t told Laura yet, though.)

Earlier that afternoon, Carmilla had gone to the storage unit she’d rented, where she’d had her things that had been in storage over in Styria shipped and held until they were ready to move. 

She’d never been much of a collector. 

Things tended to lose meaning as the years gone by, and in her lifetime, so many things had just…rotted away. She was gone for so long after Elle. Some of her more precious possessions had disappeared in that time. Mattie had saved what she could, though. She’d come back to a small collection of things that made her feel like herself again when she was trying to acclimate to this new century full of loud contraptions and jarring differences. She’d collected more things since then, but still, it all comfortably fit into the back seat and the trunk of the sedan she’d rented for the day. 

\-------

Laura had spent the better part of the last few hours after they’d finished bringing the last of the boxes in organizing the kitchen and the bathroom, and unpacking to cookware Sherman had bought them as a housewarming gift. 

She’d let Carm have some space as she unpacked her things in their bedroom. She’d heard her occasionally pad through the apartment, looking for a place for an item and finding it, and then pad back to the bedroom. She hadn’t heard her in a while, though. 

“Carm?” Laura called as she tossed some wadded up bubble wrap into one of the empty boxes. She strode down the short hallway to their bedroom, and found Carmilla sitting on the floor, half empty boxes strewn around her. Laura stood in the doorway for a moment, a smile tugging at her lips as she watched Carmilla with soft eyes. “Carm?” She asked again.

Carmilla looked up suddenly, and smiled a little when her eyes fell on Laura. 

“Hey, cupcake,” She said, glancing down at the slips of paper in her hand briefly before letting her hands fall to her lap, a finger brushing back and forth across the yellowed paper. 

“What’d you find?” Laura asked curiously, stepping around the boxes to sit beside Carmilla. 

“Some old concert tickets from the eighties,” Carmilla said, and handed the papers to Laura.

Laura studied them, reading the various names. The Clash, The Who, Adam and the Ants, The Cure, Joan Jett, countless others.

“Mattie and I spent the eighties flying back and forth from London to New York, mostly,” Carmilla said, leaning her chin on Laura’s shoulder. She smiled a little. “The punk scene wasn’t Mattie's cup of tea, but she had her corners of New York and London that she liked to haunt, so we’d rent an apartment together when Mother didn’t need us.”

“That sounds nice,” Laura aid with a soft smile as she shuffled through the old ticket stubs. 

“She cut my hair for me,” Carmila murmured, eyes misting over slightly as she remembered the night she’d come home late with a newly bought set of electric clippers and begged Mattie to shave her neck and the sides of her head. They’d spent an hour or two in the bathroom of their apartment, and Carmilla had felt something shift in her chest when she'd looked in the mirror when Mattie was finished, chunks of dark hair strewn about her feet as she ran her hands over the short, prickly hair on the sides of her head, rubbed the back of her neck with her palm. 

So very different to the tight curls and pins she’d grown so accustomed to when she was younger. 

It wasn’t dissimilar to the feeling she’d gotten the first time she’d worn pants. 

There was something freeing in it, despite the part of her that still loved gowns and pomp and circumstance. 

Mattie had chuckled at the wonderment in Carmilla’s eyes, and had run a hand through the portion of Carmilla’s hair that they’d left long, hanging past her shoulder blades. 

_“It suits you, darling,”_ She’d said with a rare soft smile. 

“What did it look like?” Laura asked, jarring Carmilla from the memory.

“It was shaved here, and here,” Carmilla said, brushing her fingers along the nape of Laura’s neck, and then the sides of her head. “sort of a mohawk with an undercut, I suppose. I never gelled it up, though.”

“Sounds sexy,” Laura smiled mischievously. 

Carmilla laughed softly. “I might have a picture from that year in one of thee boxes,” She said thoughtfully. She fished through the box where she’d found the ticket stubs, and eventually produced a polaroid that was also yellowing. She was standing with a couple other people in what looked like a bar. Her hair was cropped short on the sides, but growing out slightly, probably needing to be trimmed again, and she was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket, a ripped white teeshirt underneath. 

“Whoa,” Laura murmured under her breath, taking the photo from Carmilla. “Do you still have that jacket?”

“Mhmm,” Carmilla hummed, and nodded towards the short garment bag that was thrown on the bed. “I uhm…I didn’t want to wear it out completely, so I bought a new one and put that one away.” Carmilla had opened the garment bag briefly when she was loading her things into the rental car. The jacket still smelled of cigarettes and stale pot, and she’d carefully wrapped it up again to load it into the car. She needed to find a needle and thread to stitch up the loose seam on the shoulder that she’d been meaning to fix for the last thirty years.

Laura looked up at Carmilla, feeling a pang in her chest at the melancholy in Carmilla’s eyes. She knew Carmilla missed a lot of things that were long gone. For the most part, it seemed like Carmilla had come to terms with the passage of time, but once in a while she’d find something that Carmilla would hang onto for dear life. The ticket stubs. The leather jacket. The stacks of records and old photos. 

Laura suspected that it grounded her. Gave her context, something to touch and remember. Like it would do for anyone, but for someone who’s time was endless, Laura imagined it was all the more significant. 

“Would you ever cut your hair like the again?” Laura asked, trying to lighten the mood a little. 

Carmilla huffed out a laugh. “Maybe. Having to shave it every few weeks to keep it tame was a pain, but it felt nice. Mattie got very good with the clippers after a few times. Sometimes she would etch in a couple lines, or a design. Mostly I just liked it plain, though. I liked it rough. Haphazard. Everything Mother hated."

Laura was quiet for a long moment, her thumb swiping back and forth across the face of a younger Carmilla in the photo. “Why don’t we get some frames?” She asked. “Nice big ones. We can put all of the ticket stubs and old photos in them. If you want.” She added quickly at Carmilla’s silence. “I just thought maybe it would be cool to display them, and, y'know, keep them preserved instead of in a musty old box, but its up to you, I don-” 

Carmilla laid a hand gently on Laura’s flailing hand, a soft, loving smile on her face. “I think I’d like that, very much.” She said. “I’ve never had a place to…keep things. For something everlasting, my life has been very temporary.” She said, and rested her head on Laura’s shoulder again. 

“You have something permanent now, with me,” Laura said, lacing their fingers together. She smiled as Carmilla looked up at her. 

“I do,” Carmilla murmured, and gently bumped her forehead against Laura’s.


	2. Alternate Endings and Deleted Scenes -- the potion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura finds a way to become immortal in order to spend eternity with Carmilla, but Carmilla's unsure of how it will pan out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter two! a few days late -- I've been really busy -- but better late than never I suppose. I chose to write a little fix-it scene for the end of the movie. While I'm okay with Carmilla being a vampire again (because the nature of Carmilla's new human life was revealed to be little more than a bandaid, since Inanna only repressed the vampirism rather than removing it) I really hope that somewhere down the line they find a way to make Laura immortal so that her and Carmilla can stay together. 
> 
> Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!

Laura had thought they were done with adjusting. Acclimating. 

It took months for Carmilla to adjust to being human again, and they’d built a relatively normal life since then.

That was all gone now.

Laura was infinitely grateful that Carmilla was still there, still warm in her arms, and she’d never trade that for anything, _ever_ , but something inside her broke when Carmilla’s heart stopped beating on that ballroom floor. 

Carmilla was adjusting alright. This was all old hat to her. It was uncomfortable, though. She didn’t like lying awake, sleepless at night while Laura slept next to her. It’d taken her forever to get on a somewhat similar schedule as Laura, and she was loathed to change that again. Sleeping at night meant more time during the day with Laura.

That was nothing in comparison to watching another faint line or two show up on Laura’s face. 

That felt like a dagger to the gut. 

Watching Laura age without her. 

It had been a year since that fateful return to Styria to face Carmilla’s past, and Laura being absolutely true to herself, never once stopped looking for a way for them to stay together for good. 

As unsurprised yet utterly touched Carmilla was, she was hesitant. She would _never_ wish the immortal life on Laura. Watching everyone you care about die around you over and over and over was a terrible fate, one that Carmilla had resigned herself to, but never ever wanted of Laura. She wanted Laura forever, but she never wanted Laura to feel that pain. She would never ask her to. 

So she was feeling exceedingly conflicted now that Laura was _offering_. 

“What do you think?” Laura asked, giving Carmilla an apprehensive look as she finished her proposal for their future together. 

Carmilla let out a breath, and rubbed at her eyes as she tried to process what Laura had just told her. The living room was dim around them, only the light of the muted tv and a single lamp illuminating the space. Laura had just gotten home from work and hour or so ago, and at Carmilla’s prompting, she’d spilled what was causing the worried look on her face.

Carmilla had known that Laura was looking for a way that they could stay together, something to either cause Laura to become immortal, or something to make Carmilla human again. Carmilla had desperately hoped that if such a thing existed, that it would be the latter. She didn’t mind the notion of dying. She was far overdue, really. She wasn’t looking forward to it, but she was at peace with it eventually happening. Or she had been, when she’d been human again briefly. The idea of growing old beside Laura had been her dream. 

Despite the fact that Carmilla would never wish immortality on anyone, much less Laura, the idea of being able to wake up to Laura’s beautiful face every day for eternity, to watch her grow and to know that one would never outlive the other…it was an intoxicating thought. But a very, _very_ loaded one. 

Apparently Laura had found a way. With Mel, Perry, and LaF’s help, Laura had apparently scoured the vampire underground that existed in Toronto, and found a way to become immortal. It was a potion that Laura now held in her hand. It was a thick silver liquid in a small, corked glass bottle. Laura’s fingers were tight around it. Laura had explained that LaFontaine had studied a drop of it, and found that it was perfectly legit. That it wasn’t just colored water, or worse, some kind of poison.

“I thought you didn’t want to be immortal,” Carmilla finally croaked, looking up at Laura again. 

Laura sat down beside Carmilla. “I didn’t, before.” She said, “But that was before I knew I’d fallen in love with you, before we saved the world together, before you got your life back, and then taken away again.” She sighed quietly, her shoulders slumping slightly. “I’ll stay with you whatever we decide, but…I don’t want you to be along again in sixty years,” 

“Laura—“ 

“I know what immortality entails,” Laura said, laying a hand on Carmilla’s thigh. “I know I’d have to watch those around me die, and the world change, but….I don’t want you to have to keep doing that alone.”

“You can’t do it just for me,” Carmilla said seriously, turning to look at Laura. “if your only reason for doing it would be to keep me company…as much as I would love to have you forever,” A little smile slipped through at the thought. “and I _would_ love you, forever…you have to want this yourself. Otherwise…otherwise you’ll grow resentful, for me, for yourself, for _time_. I’ve watched it happen with other immortals. I would hate to watch you become angry and bitter and unhappy,”

Laura nodded. “I know. I’ve thought about this for the last _year_ , Carm. I want you, and I want time with you, and I don’t want people eventually thinking that you’re my daughter,” Laura’s nose scrunched up slightly. “I don’t want to not be able to go out together or be seen in public because I look seventy and you still look twenty-four. I wanted a full human life with you, but since that’s not an option anymore, I’m happy with a full immortal life with you.” 

Carmilla stared at Laura, mouth slightly agape as she tried to make sense of all of this. Her heart tugged painfully at the thought of an endless future with Laura.

“Are you sure?” Carmilla asked in a small voice. She felt a lump rising in her throat. 

“I know it would hurt,” Laura said, her hand raising to cup Carmilla’s cheek. “but it would be unbearable to leave you behind,” her lip tremble slightly, and she touched her forehead to Carmilla’s.

Carmilla swallowed painfully, and leaned forward, pressing a kiss to Laura’s lips as she tangled her fingers in Laura’s hair. 

“If you’re sure,” camilla breathed, “only if you’re sure,” 

Laura smiled at Carmilla, nodding, and kissed her again softly before uncorking the bottle, and tossing back the potion.


End file.
